Protector

Yet they had been the receiving end for two Assassins dispatched by a Shadow Guild operation out of a Dojisigi village, to Senji and then, via the old freight line to, likely, a waiting car in the Kadagidi township—

How would a residence and a lord under a Messengers’ Guild ban even geta phone call from two Dojisigi bent on mayhem over in Atageini territory?

Damned certain Lord Tatiseigi should go to great lengths to preserve these two men’s account. They had never gotten the Kadagidi so dead to rights . . . with no Filing and, this time, Guild who had been coerced, and a Shadow Guild communications network operating between the Kadagidi and their old associates in the Marid.

Banichi had said it—there was nothing they could do from here that did not risk breaking the entire problem wide open, north andsouth.

But it could be coming. Theywere all in position, like that move in chess, lord-to-fortress.

He stuffed his pillow under his head and deliberately thought not about the Dojisigi village or the Kadagidi over the hill, but about the Najida estate repair budget, complicated enough and dull enough to blunt any imagination.

That worked . . .

•   •   •

. . . too well. He came awake with the feeling he had slept much too long, and that someone had either come in or gone out. He rolled out of bed, located his robe and the light switch, and went out into the suite’s little sitting room to find it still dark outside the window. Banichi and Jago were sharing tea and a plate of sweet rolls.

“What time is it, nadiin-ji?” he asked in some chagrin.

“Just before dawn,” Jago said. “Things are relatively quiet. The aiji-dowager is awake, and Lord Tatiseigi is waking.”

“The Dojisigi?” he asked.

“The Dojisigi have provided very interesting information, Bren-ji,” Banichi said, and added with a quirk of the brow: “The dowager sent units to look at Reijisan. They reported two hours ago.”

He had been about to propose he should go dress. “What did they find?”

“Two units we have wanted to find,” Banichi said, “one of which is no longer at issue. Our Dojisigi immediately named a name. Pajeini, Chief of the Shadow Guild in the Marid— personallyinvolved in the threat to them, and, they suspect, similar dealings with the other half of this aishid. He is not yet in our hands, but the second-in-command is. The dowager dispatched units very close to Reijisan, found things as described, and they took out the senior unit with very little fuss.”

Bren sank into the third chair. “Is the village safe?”

“There were explosives. They are removed. We have not heard all the details,” Banichi said. “This is Cenedi’s network, prearranged signals to several teams in Dojisigi, prearranged responses, by a physical means Cenedi does not discuss even with us. Cenedi has directed the other half of that unit be located. We want to know where theyare. Our pair tells us the freedom they were given on this mission was very worrisome to them, since they couldhave gotten off that train at any point, and they couldhave walked up to Lord Tatiseigi’s staff and reported themselves and their situation—but they so strongly believed failure would kill their relatives in Reijisan, they did not take the risk. That has been the character of the Shadow Guild from the start—to instill the belief they know everything, that reprisals inevitably come of crossing them, that they are threaded throughout the Shejidani Guild, and that they willtarget civilians. Our two believe it can happen, even yet, and we cannot assure them otherwise until weare absolutely sure, ourselves.”

“So they essentially told the truth,” Bren said.

“They were, they say, one of three teams protecting the former lord. And Pajeini knows them— wantedthem, and, they think, the intent was to create a crisis in the north to draw forces from the south. We do not wantto undertake operations with the young gentleman’s guests present, but—” Banichi said, “we know where Pajeini is, we have a good idea where Haikuti is, and we know where Shishoji is, a rare thing, in itself. The dowager is inclined to move.”

It was what he had feared, last night. It was everything he had sworn to Tabini would not happen—risk to Cajeiri, a potential for their young guests to be involved in a Guild action. Not to mention the risk to Ilisidi herself.

But thatwould exist, no matter what. Ilisidi was not going to fortify herself in Malguri and wait for an outcome. Far less did he believe she would go up to the space station . . . possibly that she would not want to send Cajeiri there—for political reasons. The heir of the aishidi’tat had been absent from one crisis. Even at his age—there was a problem in having him in human keeping during a second one. He saw that. But—

Damn.

“We have perhaps an hour before we get any other call,” Jago said. “Perhaps less. Will you share breakfast, Bren-ji?”

“Where are Tano and Algini this morning, nadiin-ji?”